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Microsoft joins iPhone party with Seadragon App

Posted by Al Warmington on Mon 15 Dec 2008

iPhone gets priority treatment ahead of Windows Mobile

 

Microsoft has generously decided to give iPhone users a ‘tech preview’ of Seadragon, for free. Yep, Microsoft Live Labs has decided to give Apple first dibs on one of its latest mobile technologies. Colour us confused.

 

“Want to see giga-pixel images on your iPhone?” asks the Live Labs blog. Why, yes we would - although first we’d like to know what the holy hell are ‘giga-pixel images’, other than stupid Redmond jargon. It basically means very very big pictures. The Seadragon app lets you view them, navigate around and zoom in as much as you want, and all without encountering a loading screen.

 

You can view single images or large collections of images. All the usual iPhone getsure controls – pinch, tap, scroll, etc – work just fine. Because you can zoom right in, you can look at far larger, more detailed images than you would normally consider on a tiny handheld screen. You can use the Seadragon app to browse the available collections, including some from the Library of Congress, artwork and world maps. You can also view content from Microsoft’s Photosynth, Deep Zoom content and Flickr feeds.

 

If you want to see an example of technology in action, it’s well worth checking out the Hard Rock Cafe memorabilia page. And if you’re wondering why WinMo didn’t get a look in, well Microsoft explains that there aren’t any handsets good enough. Youch.

 

Link: Microsoft Live Labs (via 148Apps)